Laced Up
by foreverstartsrightnow
Summary: It's Emma's first time wearing a frilly princess gown and she feels quite insecure in it. August helps her feel better. Written for a prompt at the SwanBoothKink meme on LJ. Established Emma/August. Two-shot. Rated M for chapter 2.
1. Chapter 1

**Pairing:** Emma and August

**Rating:** M for language (and smut in the following chapter)

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing related to Once Upon a Time

**A/N:** I realized after I started writing it that I had no clue about 19th century clothing and had to do a lot of research. I'm pretty sure most of the stuff I wrote is not accurate, but we're gonna pretend that it is. TBH I don't know how I feel about this story. But I'm happy enough with it enough to post and I hope you enjoy!_  
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"She won't come out." Ruby closed the heavy oak door behind her and sighed.

"What do you mean? What's wrong?" August tensed and pushed away from the stone wall he'd been leaning against for the past half hour waiting for Emma to get dressed.

"Nothing! Granny and I got her laced up and she looks…" her face lit up with admiration, "August, she looks amazing. Snow's trying to coax her into coming downstairs but she says she doesn't want to wear it in front of everyone."

"Well, what did she expect when her parents told her she'd have to attend a royal ball?"

"Honestly?" Ruby laughed, "I think she'd prefer to go in something more like what you're wearing."

August regarded his own clothing and knew she was probably right. He definitely got off easy after they came back to the Enchanted Forest when it came to fashion. Tonight he was dressed a shiny, frilly suit with a sword hanging at his side similar to Charming, but his everyday clothes were much more practical. It was no secret between them that the tight leather pants and vest with cotton undershirt were a far cry better than the everyday dresses and cloaks the rest of the women seemed so excited to have back, though Emma managed to avoid the full treatment by adopting her mother's old forager look of fitted sheepskin pants and fur collars.

Then her parents announced a celebratory ball to be held one month after the defeat of Regina in honor of the restoration of peace to the realm. Emma agreed to wear a gown reluctantly, and later while she and August lay in each other's arms under the canopy of their four-poster bed, she revealed the extent of her disdain.

The door slowly opened again and Granny poked her head out. "She wants to see you."

August pushed in past her into the room and could hear Emma arguing with her mother behind a changing screen on the opposite side of the bedchamber.

"Emma, it's just one night, a few hours, really! And then I promise not to make you dress up again. " He could hear the pleading in Snow's voice. "It would mean so much to your father and I…"

"I don't _care_ if it's just a few hours, I'm _not_ going out there in this… thing! I feel like a walking freak show! This isn't who I am!"

August coughed nervously, announcing his presence.

"Okay, look, I'm gonna let you calm down and talk to August, but then you are coming down and showing your support of this kingdom and of this family. And that is final!" Snow rounded the edge of the changing screen and sighed as she approached him, placing a gloved hand on his arm. "_Please_ get her to come out. I know it's not what she's used to, but if we can at least get her downstairs for an hour or so, it would really mean a lot to everyone."

"I'll see what I can do. But you know where she gets her strong will from," he reminded with a smirk.

Snow shook her head at her future son-in-law and laughed. "Of course! Why do you think I have to try this hard?" She gave his arm a gentle squeeze and left the room.

After the door latched shut and he knew they were alone, August walked slowly toward the changing screen and peeked around the edge. "Emma…"

"Don't look at me!" She sat hunched over on an ottoman with her face buried in her hands. It was a dark corner so he could hardly see what she looked like anyway, but shot back around all the same.

He strolled in resignation toward the bed and plopped down on the velvet-upholstered bench in front of it, reclining casually against the footboard. "Emma, you're gonna have to come out eventually. It'll be a lot less painful if you just come downstairs with me right now and get it over with."

"But I look _ridiculous_!"

August rolled his eyes. There was not a chance in hell that Emma Swan looked any way other than absolutely drop-dead sexy in any outfit at all times. However, also with Emma, flattery would get him nowhere so he decided to stay with a tactic that had always worked for him in the past. "Probably. But I won't even know until you at least let me see you."

There was a long moment of silence before he heard the rustling of silks and cottons. "Fine. But you have to be nice."

Emma stalked out from behind the screen holding the fabric of her dress up to prevent her from tripping and hung her head. August's mouth fell agape and he sat up at full attention. Her gown was a rusty-rose colored silk with a floral pattern hand-embroidered in gold thread. The cap sleeves rested just below her shoulders and the front of the skirt opened to reveal a shimmering golden petticoat edged with ruffles. A waterfall of blond curls spilled down her back, accentuated with an arrangement of white flowers and her neck and shoulders were bare except for a delicate filigree necklace set with diamonds and pearls, and the dozen emeralds hanging from it perfectly matched the color of her eyes.

"Wow." He stared at her in disbelief.

"I look awful, don't I?" Her voice pitched. August immediately recognized that sound and knew she was close to tears.

He jumped up and ran to her, wrapping one arm around her waist to pull her close and brought the other hand up to lift her chin. "Oh, quite the opposite, Emma," he whispered before meeting her mouth in a fiery kiss.

She kissed him back, but only for a moment and then pushed away. Crossing her arms, she looked at him furiously as she spoke. "Look, I don't know what my mother promised you to get me to go downstairs, but it's not going to happen."

He approached her again, backing her up against the wall. "Forget the fucking ball. I want you. Now." He pressed himself firmly against her body and fluttered his hands down her bare arms, then grabbed her wrists and pinned them to either side of her head. Kissing her greedily, he took his time to fully explore every inch of her mouth with his tongue and eventually moved down Emma's jaw and across her throat. Taking advantage of what that wide-open neckline had to offer, he planted hot open-mouthed kisses along her chest and her breath quickened as he reached a particularly sensitive spot right below her collarbone. Emma writhed against him and moaned his name, managing to free her hands from his grasp and immediately went to work on the buttons of his tailcoat, tugging the cream undershirt out from his trousers.

Turning his attention to her the stiff form of her bodice, August's hands glided across her reinforced breasts and down her stomach, then clamped around her hips to begin pulling her toward the bed. They made an awkward dance of kisses and gropes along the way, and August threw her down with a hungry look in his eyes upon seeing the pink flush of Emma's cheeks and heaving breasts beginning to spill out. As much as he wanted to rip her out of that dress and feel the soft flesh imprisoned beneath, he couldn't tear his eyes away from her elegant, awe-inspiring form.

With a smirk, Emma sat up on the edge of the bed and took hold of his face, pulling him down to capture his lips. August moved his hands through her hair and down her back, letting his fingers trace the seam of the bodice and run down every laced eyelet and back up until he reached the knot at the top. August knew Emma always admired the dexterity of his fingers, so he plucked deftly at the strings until they began to loosen.

"Wait!" Emma pulled away and looked up at him, biting her lip. "Maybe we should go downstairs after all. Just for a little bit."

Sinking to his knees, August let out a frustrated growl. "Seriously?"

"Yeah I mean… I feel pretty awful for fighting my parents so hard on this. Plus I haven't eaten all day because I've been so nervous and now… well, you've made me feel a lot better about how I look." She smiled. "So thank you."

August groaned and dropped his head in her lap. "Alright," he heaved and then rolled back on his heels and stood, tucking his undershirt back into his pants and buttoning his tailcoat.

"One more thing," she said as she stood and turned her back to him, looking over her shoulder coyly, "you're gonna have to tie me back up."

"You got it, Princess." August leered at her and taking the laces between his fingers, he cinched the bodice tightly, extracting a hiss. Emma leaned her head back on his shoulder, fully exposing her neck and giving him the perfect view of her cleavage. He wasted no time in lavishing the bare skin with his lips as he finished knotting the strings, then moved up to her ear, nipping the lobe before pulling back slightly to whisper, "But if you think for one minute I won't cut this dress off of you and fuck your brains out the second we get back into this room, you're out of your damn mind."

She shivered in his arms and spun around, throwing her hands around his neck and pulling him in for a kiss. "I wouldn't expect anything less," she whispered against his lips and then gripped her dress to stroll back towards the changing screen. "Just let me get my shoes on and I'll meet you outside."

That woman could do things to him unlike any other and every minute he spent with her was counted as the most incredible miracle. August watched her disappear behind the screen and took a deep breath. With a reluctant sigh, he paced toward the door and opened it to find the three women waiting anxiously.

"She's coming." A collective exhale was released. "She's just getting her shoes and then she'll be out." He surveyed their overjoyed faces and frowned. "But I think she'd feel a lot better if you weren't all here staring at her when she does."

Snow agreed and gave August a quick hug, then hurried down to find her husband and greet their guests while Ruby and Granny retreated to their own quarters to finish some last minute prepping.

August leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes, replaying his previous moments with Emma and imaged that silk dress slipping from her slender body and falling to the floor. For a moment he thought of returning to their room and making it a reality, but his reverie was interrupted when the door began to creak open.


	2. Chapter 2

**Pairing:** Emma and August

**Rating:** strong M for much sexytimes and language

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing related to Once Upon a Time

**A/N:** The chapter with the smut.

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Emma swung the door open to find August waiting alone. She sighed in relief.

"Where'd the hens go?"

August snorted and pushed back from the wall to offer her his elbow, which she quickly tucked her arm through, mostly for fear of tripping on the slightly uneven stone floor she wasn't quite used to just yet. "I sent them away. Figured you wouldn't want them clucking at you."

"What would I do without you?" She smiled up at him out of the corner of her eye and they began to wander slowly through the maze of corridors. After getting lost a few times and laughing with every wrong turn as they tried to find their way back, they finally arrived at the main staircase.

Emma hesitated at the top step. She knew it wasn't a huge deal in the long run, and even realized that everyone else would be looking as silly and dolled up as she did, but her stomach still lurched when she saw the small crowd forming at the base of the stairs turn their attention to her. She looked up at August whose warm smile calmed her immediately and clutched him as they made their way down the steps, greeting familiar faces as they approached.

"Princess Emma Swan and Mister August W. Booth!" The footman announced unexpectedly, causing Emma to nearly fall off the bottom step. August chuckled as he caught her, his hand sliding across her back and over the seam of her bodice. Emma nearly moaned aloud at the memory of his hands working to get her free not long before. This was going to be a difficult few hours, but she knew it would be worth it in the end.

After righting herself, they made their way through the crowd and found her parents by the castle entrance.

"Wait, where's Henry?" Emma realized that amidst the drama, she hadn't seen her son all day.

"I know I just saw him around here somewhere…" The pair searched the crowd in vain and nearly gave up right just as Emma spotted him on the other side of the foyer. The boy caught his mother's eye immediately and ran to her, catching her in a tight hug.

"Mom! You look amazing!"

"Thanks, kid, so do you."

He was dressed, quite superfluously, in a shiny suit similar to her father and August, but in an adorable miniature version. Emma found herself unable to stop smiling at the sight of him, and was suddenly glad she'd decided to attend the ball, if only for this reason.

"I missed you today."

"I'm sorry, sweetie. I missed you, too." Emma knelt and put her hands on his shoulders. "How about tomorrow we spend the whole day together? Just the two of us."

"Sounds good, mom." He hugged her again and then bid her goodbye. Emma watched as he disappeared through the crowd to find the other kids and secretly wished she could just spend the rest of the party hanging out with them.

Emma nearly tripped and fell again as the footman bellowed an announced that the feast was about to begin. They filed into the great hall with the rest of the guests and took their places at the head table next to her parents.

The feast was long and boring. Between shoveling food into her mouth and listening to speeches, Emma tried to occupy herself by seeing how far she could slide her hand up August's thigh before he tried to discreetly stop her.

At one point he leaned over to whisper: "I hope you realize how hard you're making it for me to remain fully clothed right now."

"I do," she replied with a wicked grin as her hand moved dangerously close to his crotch.

"Jesus, Emma…"

She removed her hand and tried to stifle a laugh as August shifted uncomfortably and took a deep breath.

After guests were dismissed to the grand ballroom and the band began to play something old and foreign, Emma stood with her arms crossed at the back of the room, watching fondly as her parents glided effortlessly across the floor.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were actually enjoying this." August snuck up beside her, sneaking an arm around her waist.

She tried to hold back a smirk and leaned up to speak softly into his ear. "If we slip out now, I'm sure no one will notice."

"How about just one dance before we go?" He pulled her body flush with his and started swaying with the biggest shit-eating grin plastered across his face that she'd ever seen. Feigning disgust, she allowed him to lead her ostentatiously across the floor and bump (seemingly on purpose) into the other couples who actually knew what they were doing. By the time they reached the doorway on the opposite side, Emma had to suppress her giggles and snorts, trying not to draw more attention than August's exaggerated dance moves already had.

Pulling him by the neck, she led him out into the corridor and kissed him firmly.

"Will you please come upstairs and ravage the hell out of me, now?"

"Hmmm…" August pretended to think for a long moment. "I think I can manage that."

They practically raced each other back to their bedchamber, only getting lost once or twice and laughed the entire way. August pressed Emma against the heavy oak door to smother her with kisses while he fumbled with the door latch. When they made it inside, their awkward dance continued, kicking off their shoes as they went.

"Now, where was I?" August backed her against the bed and forced her into a sitting position, then knelt in front of her. He ran his hands down the smooth silk of her dress, then slipped them underneath the hems of her petticoats and flipped them over his head. Emma could feel his mouth pressing kisses up the insides of her stocking-covered legs while his hands roamed up over her thighs, lightly brushing the bare skin above the line where her stockings ended, setting her nerves on fire.

The heat in her belly intensified when his mouth finally joined his hands and he placed kisses over the fabric of the modern underwear she'd commissioned a seamstress to make.

"August…" she moaned, wishing she could see his face and weave her fingers through his hair. "I thought you said you were going to cut this dress off and fuck me?"

"That was right after you'd gotten me all worked up." The vibrations of his voice against her core sent a ripple of pleasure through her spine and she cursed. "Now I'm afraid you'll just have to wait until I'm ready. But that doesn't mean I can't do other things for you until then."

She gasped as she felt the underwear ripped and extracted from her body. "Hey, jerk, I paid a lot of money—"

The condemnation remained unfinished as his mouth returned unshielded to her flesh before using his fingers to spread her open and she lay back, hands immediately twisting in the quilt. He ran his tongue up through her folds, flicking her sensitive bud when he reached the crest, sending Emma into a fit of whimpers and moans. No other partner had been able to drive her this wild with the slightest touch, and that thought alone sometimes made her wet long before any foreplay had even begun.

Before continuing, he positioned her legs up on his shoulders and brought his hands around the top of her thighs. His mouth returned to lavish her aching center, teasing her opening with his tongue before working his way back up to her swollen clit. She was so far gone that as his mouth clamped down, she came immediately, clenching her thighs around his head and lifting her hips up into his face. He lapped up the juices that flowed freely from her and hummed against the oversensitive flesh until her legs relaxed.

Sitting up, she leaned down and pulled the layers of fabric up and cupped his face, sweeping her lips over his before kissing him fully, not caring that she could taste herself on his mouth.

His hands snaked up around her back and began to untie the bodice strings once again, and Emma moaned into his mouth as they loosened, needing relief from the confinement. August's hands were precise and nimble, and he took his time to pull her free, driving her wild with anticipation.

When Emma felt that the bodice was loose enough, she slid the sleeves down and lifted her hips to allow August to pull the dress off. He discarded it and looked back at her bewilderedly. "How many damn layers did they put you in?"

"I don't even know!" Emma laughed and took notice of the way his eyes focused on her lacy corset. "Why don't you start taking them off of me and we can count?"

She scooted back on the bed and laid along its length, while August crawled over her and began to work on the rest of her clothes, unbuttoning and removing the gold petticoat along with the pain cotton one underneath. Her thigh-high stockings came next and all that remained was the corset that August couldn't take his eyes off of.

"I think it's time you lost some clothes now." She smiled eagerly and reached up to unbutton his tailcoat, which he quickly shrugged to the floor, then pulled the undershirt over his head. His eyes never left the corset as he took over his disrobing. Emma held back the grin forming at the fact that he was obviously dumbfounded and incredibly turned on by it. And if she couldn't tell just by the speed at which his clothes hit the floor, now he'd slid up against her, his hardened length pressing against her hip through the thin cotton drawers that remained.

Attacking her neck and the crest of her breasts with his mouth, August's hands raked up and down the corset possessively. Emma brought her legs up around his waist in hopes that he would get the hint to hurry along their lovemaking, but his focus remained on that damn article of clothing. She panted and moaned against the crown of his head and felt the heat between her legs grow, suddenly requiring the skin contact her corset maliciously prevented.

Finally feeling the need to take matters into her own hands, she rolled him off of her and sat up straddling his hips in one fluid motion. "So you like the corset, huh?"

August nodded wide-eyed and breathless. Emma grabbed his hands as they reached up to touch it again and pinned them back on the bed, leaning over him.

"But I bet you'd like it a lot more if it wasn't on me." She leaned down to kiss him, nipping his bottom lip as she pushed back up and began to unlatch the front hooks. August leaned back on his elbows and watched intently as each clasp came undone, revealing another fraction of creamy skin.

After the corset was flung to the ground, Emma allowed him to roam his hands over her ribs and breasts, fingers tracing the angry red lines left imprinted in her skin by the boning.

She grew anxious again by his unhurried movements and scooted down to yank his drawers impatiently off. Taking him in her hand, she stroked him slowly until he groaned and pressed his head back against the bed. She leaned down to take him into her mouth, teasing his head with a light swirl of her tongue. He wasn't the only one capable of driving his partner wild.

"Fuck, Emma…"

Sitting up, she continued to slowly pump him as she spoke. "Think you're ready yet?"

August nodded as she poised herself over him and sank down with a sigh, allowing him to fill her completely. She worked up a slow but steady rhythm until he regained his bearings from the corset incident, and grabbed her by the hips to flip her on her back.

She cried out as he thrust hard into her, finally receiving what she'd craved all day. The nail marks she made in his back were deep enough to draw blood, but he never seemed to mind when they got rough, often inflicting his own sex injuries in response. Right now he was biting her shoulder, then licking and kissing the teeth marks he left as the speed of his hips increased.

Emma sensed herself coming undone for the second time, feeling her slick muscles begin to clench around August and pull him over the edge with her. She gasped loudly, arching her back towards him as her orgasm ripped through her body, bucking her hips into his as she rode out the aftershocks and dug her nails deeper into his flesh.

August groaned after his final solid thrusts and collapsed on top of her, rolling to the side after a moment and pulled her body back against his.

"Are you glad we waited now?"

"Not really," he spoke softly into her ear, "But I do have to admit that I'm glad I don't have to get dressed now. It'll make round two much easier."

"Very true," Emma agreed with a laugh. "And I guess it's good you didn't actually cut the dress off. I don't think my mother would have been very pleased when I gave it back to her."

"No, she wouldn't," August chuckled and stroked his hand along the length of her bare body. "I do have one request, though, if it's not too much to ask."

"Of course, anything." Emma turned to face him and placed a hand on his cheek. "What is it?"

"Keep the corset."


End file.
